Licensed to grille, king of the grille – we could go on making poor jokes about the enormous nostrils on Munich’s updated limo but let’s be adult about this, because, believe it or not, that front end is the result of feedback from actual BMW-7-Series customers.

BMW responded to the call for bolder styling by enlarging the trademark kidney grille by 48 per cent – it’s so big it made the standard badge look microscopic, and designers had to prise a much larger BMW roundel off an X7 to redress the balance.

The highest point of the nose is now 5cm higher to make the front end look more upright, plus there are thinner head- and tail lights, and a light strip running full-width across the boot. Both the long- and short-wheelbase cars have grown 22 millimetres in length, while bigger vents improve the aerodynamics around the wheels.

Tall rear-seat passengers might find themselves a little tight on headroom but are easily distracted by a pair of 10-inch displays and a Blu-ray player. As before, everything is controlled by a seven-inch removable tablet taking in seat adjustment, lighting and climate, as well as infotainment and sat-nav.

Behind the huge honker you’ll find engines ranging from an improved plug-in hybrid to a #V12 petrol, with a new V8 and different versions of the best-selling six-cylinder turbodiesel making up the bulk of the range.

We reckon the #BMW-745Le-xDrive-G12 plug-in hybrid is a real highlight – it’s now capable of up to 36 electric-only miles and features a more powerful straight-six petrol engine. It’s impressively wafty and serenely quiet-running in EV mode, thanks to the thicker glass now fitted all-round and more insulation in the wheelarches and B-pillars.

But it’s the superb 4.4-litre V8 750i that’s most rewarding when you up the pace, and the stiff, Carbon Core’d chassis delivers thrills in ways no massive limo should.

First verdict

The 7-series remains the best driver’s car in a market where most buyers prefer to be driven by someone else.

It would appear that BMW has started calling its Individual arm the ‘ #BMW-Individual-Manufactory ’ and has just announced that this Manufactory will be producing two highly exclusive edition models based on the BMW-750Li-xDrive – the ‘Solitaire Edition’ and the ‘Master Class Edition’. They will be finished in Individual Metallic Black Gold and Individual Metallic Solitaire White and both colours include fine glass flakes embedded into one of the final layers of paint, resulting in a particularly pronounced deep gloss.

Inside there are swathes of Individual fine-grain full Merino leather trim in a Tartufo colour as well an Alcantara roof liner in the same hue. Soft floor mats made from sheared lambskin in Tartufo, storage compartments for cosmetic tissues finished in colour-matching leather in both rear doors as well as soft, Alcantara covered cushions in, you guessed it, Tartufo, add to the car’s luxurious ambiance. Even the boot is lined in Tartufo Alcantara! Inside you’ll find a bar compartment with tulip sparkling wine glasses and an integrated cooling box in the rear compartment centre console, while a silver-plated plaque on the centre console discreetly informs passengers that they are travelling in a highly exclusive machine. If you fancy one the bad news is that they will probably have already been sold by the time you read this as BMW is only making six Solitaires and one Master Class.

As comes with the new #BMW-7-Series is a car that in indulgence and luxury balanced our view extremely pleasant consistently coherent and on the amount of time. Seen, d we pay attention to the car offers but also wonderful to when m se to the core of why we quality and luxury are timeless love, want to approach authentic. Actually only remains the rage, worm then deal countered per see and the new 7 Series G11 /G12. Clear that wires instant did.

Copenhagen would not have been so wrong. Lauter happy people. All very calmly and relaxed. Gladly you can here on the things, which make life authentic and worth living. Not only some of the best restaurants in the world are for pure enjoyment. Big Easy. The modern, inspired architecture would have made very fine in the pictures of the photographer.

Ever had of course offered the typical learned luxury destinations in the world as predestined encounter stages for the sixth and latest evolution touches the 7 idea. With all these premium lifestyle fashion architecture Airplane ships associations, give the practiced maintenance.

Or we could have people who bring a person luxury expertise bring to us in the car. Then we could have a chat with them about the car in connection with all sorts of the usual luxury aspects. Female luxury creatures would have to handsomely in and can loll around the car. Only, these approaches would not have been really do justice to the intention. Car certainly not.

Calm, confident and self-assured. As it stands, the new BMW 7 Series. At the beach. Only sand, sea, sky and sun. We breathe in and through, nothing distracts. Everything was very, very pure. Substantial sensual. The concentration on the essentials. In the car. To us. And this wonderful feeling of freedom. A perfect setting for a date. And for a trip to his own ego.

With luxury, we always like to connect directly good craftsmanship, the way in which an object is made, the starting materials, the design. The combination of aesthetics and style attracts us. Here is already working the first impression, the leaves of the 7 Series. The car is as elegant as unpretentious presence. Good statement. And our senses loll ever at the sight.

A long chrome strip which closes the two doors in the downward direction and opens into an air outlet behind the front wheel, leads our Discover. The shoulder line runs parallel to it a little higher and is pulled like a taut line. All details give pleasure. The mirrors, for example, that attach themselves with a filigree lightness on thin chrome bars on the car. Of course, there are the typical BMW twin headlights - now as a laser light - and probably the broadest portfolio in the kidney of the Munich carmaker. We also identify the crafted from a single piece chrome on the rear windows, perhaps one of the most important design tradition at BMW. The lines appear very smooth and without visible transitions. Each line makes sense.

We quickly reflect once again what has been set in relation to the phenomenon of luxury and is currently at all like that. Luxury attracts us like a magnet. We love luxury - for the simple reason, because we can not otherwise. Luxury namely doing us good. Regardless of accidental circumstances or trends. Our emotional system is evolutionary biology calibrated on us to provide for each event quasi automatically the baseline valuation, main criterion: Something might be good or rather disadvantageous for us. This simple sorting by positive and negative triggers accompanying pleasure or feelings of displeasure and controls our actions: the positive is wanted, the Negative avoided. Luxury puts us at the center and we meet here as extremely positive combination of good feeling and message. Nothing will change in principle.

Evolutionary biology is not discharged their children. Interior welcomes us a lounge facilities as in the first class, with footrest, massage function and Vitality Program, timely controlled via an integrated tablet. Who appreciates fragrances, may choose among the same eight variants of four categories. How about a refreshing Blue Suite? It may be a little stronger? Then maybe the hot-spicy Golden Suite. Even trying will to return. Straight modern city dwellers have forgotten how to smell.

Luxury hotels and spas have long recognized this and therefore develop successfully for years fragrance concepts. We know that scents affect both psychologically and physiologically: they increase well-being, lower blood pressure and heart rate. In France it is called the Madeleine effect, named after the famous passage in Proust. So a Madeleine effect in traffic jams can thus quite work wonders. By the way we think about us then also again with pleasure that the world actually is a pretty fast place, the right car here creates an opportunity to rest and recharge your batteries. Interior welcomes us a lounge equipped with a massage function and Vitaliy program. Who appreciates fragrances, may choose just below eight variants of four categories.

Curious, we let the Welcome Light Carpet shine under our feet, while the panoramic glass roof frees us the way to heaven. At night it allows us then even a game with mood lighting. The matching soundtrack? With pleasure! The plant, with diamond core specially designed Bowers & Wilkins surround underscored the overall experience, enveloped us in a perfectly tuned to the 7 Series interior and the driver position sound quality cloud. How to organize this?

Just like the phone. With gesture control by moving the finger. True conductors make no different. Otherwise we take aesthetics, materials and workmanship, a, always strictly following the functional requirements and implemented consistently in detail. Innovation meets craft, modern technology meets proven materials.

There's leather, wood, aluminum and including a lot of carbon. Since the seats, their leather have no artificial embossing or surface treatment, are makes it breathable and sensationally soft. The car is a stage and retreat at the same time. But also a very inspiring experience world with lots of useful features-entertaining innovation. So an integrated Android tablet with 7-inch screen gives in the rear center armrest, what is meant by a smart built-in digital luxury in a car. Almost everything can be controlled: from the lighting effect on the seats, from the music to the navigation. Who wants so surfs briefly once across the virtual world and back.

Only open car and start yesterday. In the new 7 Series car key must start times so correctly. In times of smartphones and tablets it is to interactive connectivity tool. He informed us about the vehicle's data as the tank capacity or the battery level. If necessary he can also tell us where our car is level. We can even remotely with the sly thing. Pretty appropriate for the size of the vehicle in relation to the parking space, but also casual and enormous audience appeal, as BMW will certainly not remain so alone. Friends and family, we can then explain relaxed that refinement just has always been an important feature of luxury, which then falls under the rubric of connoisseurship in this context.

Although luxury products are still regarded as a very classic of goods of exceptional value and quality, which are characterized by exclusivity, so shortages, which may also be reflected in its price. But if a modern luxury thinking intervenes, it's just authentic and traditional values that give the luxury product Aura, recognition and concupiscence. Truly Luxurious today products, services and events that combine quality and relevance with emotionally and intellectually activating and inspiring experiences, the experts say. We give them spontaneously right.

Joy of life is great, the concrete sheer driving pleasure also. But we did not. In this beach the moment we were doing so about something else. Accelerate we just wanted to sense and imagination. Because, as we said, the omission is an essential feature of enlightened thinking luxury.

For those who are interested in: #BMW-750Li-xDrive-G12 , eight-cylinder, 450bhp at 650 Nm, to a cheerful all-wheel steering.

For the lightness of being is the core of the body made of carbon, which arranges skillfully with steel, magnesium and plastic so that the 7130 kg less than its predecessor weighs. Consistently goes so his #BMW i3 and BMW-i8 chosen the way of saving weight on. And with this view then ends 7 Series even the first trip with the new BMW. Without a meter driven to be.
But all the more moving. We look forward to more.

The Lap of Luxury We’ve finally driven the new 7 Series and we reckon that BMW can, at last, eclipse the S-Class. Great as the #BMW-7-Series has been over the past 38 years, it has never managed to completely surpass Mercedes’ pesky S-Class – until now… Words: Matt Robinson. Photography: BMW. #BMW-G11 / #BMW-G12

If someone asked you to picture the world’s greatest driving road in your mind’s eye, you’d probably immediately think of a mountain pass with lots and lots of bends on it – France’s Col de Turini, Italy’s Stelvio or the unpronounceable Transfagarasan Highway in Romania. But, according to top scientists (or rather, car hire firm Avis), there’s a ratio that defines what constitutes a divine road. It’s determined by the amount of time you spend on straights in relation to curves and for the finest feeling from behind the wheel, you need ten seconds on each straight for every one frittered away in the bends.

This immediately rules out the mountain passes, which are normally just a constant sequence of leftright- left-right ad infinitum. But there’s a route in Europe that gets very close to Avis’ perfect 10:1 ratio – and it’s in Portugal. It’s the 17-mile-long run from Peso de Régua to Pinhão, the N222 road that hugs the southern edge of the mighty Rover Douro through the heart of the Port wine region. Apparently, with a driving ratio of 11:1 and some spectacular scenery, it’s the one road in the world that comes closest to perfection.

And we were on it in a car that’s pretty close to perfection itself. BMW chose to launch its sixth generation of 7 Series in the surroundings of Porto, one of the major cities of the Iberian peninsula, and part of the route involved the N222, admittedly travelling along it in the Pinhão-Peso de Régua eastwest direction. Our charge for this slice of motoring nirvana was the 750Li xDrive – and there can be few vehicles on sale for any money that would have been better for the journey.

The chief target for this latest Seven to take down is a familiar one: it’s the Mercedes S-Class. Long has the Stuttgart car been the leader in this luxury executive field and, despite some excellent Sevens over the years, the Merc has always remained one step ahead. Munich, though, was determined to arrest that trend this time around and so has pulled out all the stops…

For starters, BMW has unloaded the entire tech arsenal it has in its possession into the 7 Series range. All models benefit from what customers would expect and demand in this sector, such as cruise control, leather, climate control, heated front seats, keyless entry and go and so on and so forth. The Seven then gets a few more choice toys, such as air suspension with Dynamic Damper Control (DDC) and gesture recognition in the cabin – pre-defined hand gestures in the area underneath the interior mirror can turn the radio volume up or down, answer calls on the Bluetooth system or even bring up check control messages the car would like its occupants to read.

But then you come to the options list, and the word ‘epic’ doesn’t quite cover it. Sky Lounge Panoramic Sunroofs incorporate LEDs that work in conjunction with the Seven’s ambient cabin lighting to provide the most soothing environment possible. The Executive Lounge package brings in fully electric, massaging and heated/ventilated seats in the back, along with a tablet in the rear armrest centre console with which to take control of the infotainment. The headlights can have laser main beams with a 600- metre illumination range; the car can park in and extricate itself from tight, perpendicular parking spots without a human on board; the Driver Assistance pack lets it thunder along motorways with semiautonomous control to ease away boardroom stress; and there’s also a #Bowers-&-Wilkins Diamond surround sound system of ridiculous power – among much, much more.

So the 7 Series easily goes toe-to-toe with the S-Class in terms of technology, but it actually pulls ahead when it comes to weight. Taking learnings gleaned from the i3 and i8 electric vehicles and feeding them back into the main range, carbon fibre reinforced plastic is used in the construction of the Seven’s body-in-white, leading to the tag ‘Carbon Core’. Along with other savings, it means up to 130kg is trimmed from the kerb weight of some models. The 730d regular wheelbase ‘G11’ variant, for instance, clocks in at just 1755kg – impressive stuff for a five-metre long luxury car.

However, significant ballast can be added back in through two means: opt for the ‘G12’ long-wheelbase versions and the extra 140mm grafted into the car’s centre section adds 45kg; xDrive all-wheel drive brings a further 70kg. Perhaps it’s worth expanding on the UK launch range here. There are four versions of the 3.0-litre turbodiesel-powered car (the 730d, 730Ld, 730d xDrive and 730Ld xDrive), two each of the petrols (the straight-six, 3.0-litre, 326hp 740i and 740Li, and the 4.4-litre, twin-turbo V8 750i xDrive and 750Li xDrive) and three versions of a plug-in hybrid 7 Series. Badged 740e, a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine is teamed with an electric motor; this is the same drivetrain we sampled recently in the X5. It can be specified as a rear-wheel drive G11 and either rear-wheel drive or xDrive examples of the G12.

Day one of our test drives and the route that culminated in a brisk amble along the banks of the Douro in pristine Portuguese sunshine was conducted in the range-topping 750Li xDrive. Likely to be a six-figure car basic, this is the one which will find the most buyers in the US, China and the Middle East, because it is pure opulence on wheels. BMW loaded the demo cars with almost every toy in the book and the standard of the cabin was simply exquisite. There’s not a single inch of black plastic to be seen anywhere within, and everything looks and feels of the highest quality. All 140 of those extra millimetres of the Li are for the benefit of rear-seat passengers and the net result is a cabin that is vast. Not that you’ll notice it from behind the wheel. The xDrive system makes the 5238mm-long 750Li feel nimble – you start to throw the big limo around as if it were a 3 Series. And it doesn’t mind this sort of treatment, because the air suspension with DDC maintains a rigid grip on the Seven’s body at all times.

Lean is minimal and there’s a generally strong dynamic showing should you feel like driving the 7 Series hard, although the steering is a little light on ultimate feedback. Still, for picking off the slowmoving sightseers dawdling along the N222, the 750Li’s performance is more than adequate. That’s because, with just one glance at the stats, you can see how monstrously fast a car this is. The 4.5-second 0-62mph time tells only part of the story – it’s the way the BMW just keeps on accelerating so strongly beyond that which stuns. Because, while the needle on the dial spins round rapidly and the world through the windscreen starts to blur, the rest of the experience is utterly effortless. There’s a muted growl from the biturbo V8 that filters into the cabin, but otherwise, the 7 Series insulates you completely from the physical aspects of building up to silly pace.

This brings us neatly on to the 730d, as we want to talk about the ride and general level of refinement possessed by the sixth-gen 7 Series. Driven on day two, without the world’s greatest driving road (according to Avis) to fall back on, and shorn of both the long-wheelbase of the 750i and xDrive traction, it could have felt like the poor relation of the launch range; BMW had even deigned to remove some of the more luxurious optional extras that were showcased on the Li from the 3.0-litre diesel car.

Yet it’s the 730d that makes us wonder if this might just be the best three-box saloon on the planet right now, irrespective of price. Like the 750Li, it too is an agile machine and there’s a suggestion that without drive going to the front axle, the steering is better to deal with. There are also no complaints about rear legroom, because there’s still plenty of space in the back of the short wheelbase car. Crucially, the levels of comfort are unparalleled.

There’s no trade-off in compliance here as a result of the Seven’s dynamic competence, as the ride is flawless at all times, the air suspension smoothing away every road surface imperfection long before it can get to the cabin. The diesel unit is even more hushed and discreet than the 4.4-litre V8 petrol; all Sevens are linked to the most fluid, fast-reacting and seamless eight-speed automatic we’ve yet encountered. So when you’re simply cruising along in this 730d, it’s velvet smooth and quieter than your average cathedral inside – and a lot more comfortable, too. The 7 Series’ day-to-day demeanour is the car’s strongest suit and it’s so phenomenally good that there’s no doubt the Seven is the new leader of its class. The Mercedes just cannot match it.

Have we got any negatives to tell you about, beyond the overly-light steering? Well, the actual fuel economy we saw on both cars was 22.6mpg for the 750Li xDrive and 33.2mpg on the 730d – both some way short of the official figures, but, alarmingly on the diesel, nearly half what Munich quotes as achievable. We have to couch this figure in the terms of the test drive, which involved crawling around the streets of Porto and driving along a twisting, semi-mountainous route in a forest, two things most Sevens will probably avoid. And on the motorways leading towards Portugal’s second city, the 730d did at least show an instant economy figure that was hovering around 55mpg – so we think owners should reckon on a real-world 40-50mpg average. Not what’s advertised, sure, but also not bad for 1.75 tonnes of prime executive.

There’s one final area that will divide opinion and that’s the styling. In the convoluted history of BMW design, Adrian van Hooydonk – BMW’s current director in this area – was credited with the work on the E65 7 Series; the one that most people call the ‘Bangle Butt’ BMW. And yet, while the early 21st century ‘Flame Surfaced’ cars penned under American Chris Bangle’s auspices received critical panning for being too much of a departure from what had gone before, now van Hooydonk is accused of playing it too safe in the wake of Bangle’s 2009 departure from the company.

We can see what some people mean. The new Seven is very clearly an evolution of the F01/F02 predecessors, rather than a completely clean-slate piece of work. And some of it is questionable. Wider light clusters now link to the trademark BMW frontend theme, the kidney grilles – which are the largest we’ve ever seen from Munich. The mid-cycle impulse that BMW enacts on each and every car it makes usually involves tweaks to the lamp designs and an enlargement of the kidney grilles, so we have no idea how the company will manage on the latter score when the 7 Series needs its face-lift in 2018.

The sides of the car are also quite plain, deliberately so according to van Hooydonk, but that can lead to a slab-like appearance, certainly on the long-wheelbase cars with their colossal rear doors. However, we do like the rear styling and the two strakes on the bonnet of the 7 Series, which almost act as sight guides for where to put the BMW’s nose when you’re behind the wheel. The traditionally staid executive colour palette is offered for the 7 Series, so expect to see most cars in grey, silver or black, with the few daring buyers perhaps opting for dark blue. Okay, lurid yellow would be a daft idea on a car so big but perhaps there are other colours, not as yet offered, which will suit the Seven’s lines a little better.

Nevertheless, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and, personally, we find the look of the current car to be pleasing. So, when coupled with the unequalled levels of comfort and refinement on offer, a potential level of technology to rival a space station, magnificent drivetrains and a chassis that responds well to keener drivers, there’s little to fault on the remarkable new 7 Series. Lucky us, eh? Driving the best executive car along the best road in the world! Well, we’re not sure about the second half of that statement, but we are absolutely certain on the first. The 7 Series has eclipsed the Mercedes S-Class – mission, finally, accomplished for #BMW .